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Parts of San Francisco resemble the poorest slums in the
world -- even though the city is one of the richest in
America.

Encampments of street people are everywhere. Some pitch
tents. Others defecate on the sidewalk. Some are mentally ill and
harass people. John Stossel asks: "why does such a rich city have a
huge problem with homelessness?" One reason in that the city fails
to enforce even basic laws against bad behavior. The Daily Wire's
Colton Haas filmed one woman who says: "Police don't do anything
about it. They'll get somebody for drinking a beer but they'll walk
right past people using a needle." Many crimes, from shoplifting to
car break-ins, are often ignored in San Francisco. An average of 85
cars are broken into every day in the city. Yet police make arrests
in less than 2 percent of car break-ins. Even some street people
complain about the behavior of crazy and violent homeless people.
"They run around and they shout at themselves ... They make it bad
for people like us that hang out with a sign," one man who usually
sleeps on the street told us. Since store owners can't rely on city
cops to deal with the masses of homeless, some hire private police
to patrol around their stores. Private police are effective, and
there used to be hundreds. But then the city's police union
complained, and now there are fewer than 10 left. Stossel notes
that another reason for the city's homeless problem is that the
city offers relatively generous benefits: free shelter, train
tickets, and $70/month in cash. That's in addition to food stamps
people can already get. San Francisco's politicians have promised
to fix the homeless problem for decades. In 1982, then-mayor Dianne
Feinstein bragged about creating "A thousands units right here in
the Tenderloin" for the homeless. In 2002, mayor Willie Brown said
"you gotta do something about it." In 2008, mayor Gavin Newsom
said, "our combined efforts ... have already moved 6,860 human
beings off the street." In 2018, San Francisco's mayor was still
calling for more money. San Francisco also passed a big new tax on
employers to raise money. But so far, the extra funding hasn't
worked. The number of street people has grown most every year. One
reason is that rents in San Francisco are the highest in the
nation. Laura Foote is an activist who runs the non-profit "YIMBY"
-- or "Yes In My Backyard." She tries to convince people to allow
more housing. But even in liberal San Francisco, many people don't
want that. "I would hate it. I would hate it," one woman told John
Stossel. "I think it'd be really congested," said another.
Developers complain the city severely limits them. "Let me build,"
says developer John Dennis. He spent years trying to get permission
to replace a graffiti-covered, long-defunct meat-packing plant with
nice new apartments. He eventually got permission to develop the
new building will house 60 people, but it took 4 years. "And all
that time, we're paying property taxes and we're paying for
maintenance of the building," Dennis tells Stossel. "What's your
next project in San Francisco?" Stossel asks. "No more projects in
San Francisco," Dennis replies. "I'm done. I'll never do another
project here." Stossel points out the hypocrisy of the situation:
"People in San Francisco often claim to be all about helping the
poor. But their policies make life tougher for the
poor."

Sports stadiums get billions of dollars in taxpayer
subsidies, including Mercedes-Benz Stadium, home to the Atlanta
Falcons and the site of this year's Super Bowl.

Costing $1.5-billion, it's one of the most expensive
stadiums in America. The owner of Atlanta's football team,
billionaire Arthur Blank, persuaded Atlanta officials to force
taxpayers to pay for more than $700-million in subsidies for his
stadium. John Stossel says he understands why politicians subsidize
stadiums. "They like going to games, and like telling voters, 'I
brought a team to our town!'" says Stossel. He also understands why
billionaires take the money, "if politicians are giving money away,
Blank's partners would consider him irresponsible not to take it."
And when it comes to already-rich people getting poorer people to
fund their stadiums, Atlanta is not unusual. The Oakland Raiders
got $750-million of taxpayer money to move the Raiders to Las
Vegas. "In the last two decades … taxpayers across the country have
spent nearly $7-billion on [NFL] stadiums," according to a
Huffington Post article. In fact "12 teams … actually turned a
profit on stadium subsidies alone," according to a Fox News report.
Politicians claim their subsidies are "an investment." They argue
the economic benefits a stadium will bring a city outweigh the
cost. Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman said, "It really is a benefit
to us that really could spill over into something." Stossel says
this "spill over is bunk." Numerous economic studies have shown
that stadiums are a bad investment for taxpayers. One by George
Mason University concludes, "Despite the many millions of dollars
spent on professional sports, little or none of that money makes
its way back to the taxpayers who subsidize professional sports
teams." In fact "… sports teams may actually hurt economic growth."
Economist J.C. Bradbury points out that while money spent at
football games is the "seen benefit, the unseen cost is that those
people would otherwise be spending their money elsewhere in the
local communities. At the local bar there's one less bartender.
There was one less waitress hired at another restaurant. A movie
theater that had one less theater full." Stossel reminds everyone,
"When politicians brag about their stadium and the many economic
benefits, let's also remember all the jobs they destroyed and
taxpayer money they squandered."

Wolfgang Müller, General Secretary of the German
organization EIKE, or The European Institute for Climate and
Energy, talks about the environmental impacts of wind farms. He
concludes they are detrimental to the environment.

When Al Gore released An Inconvenient Truth, the world
went into a global warming hysteria. Twelve years later, much of
the world has spotted the ruse, but some still proclaim that fossil
fuels will doom mankind. Dr. Jay Lehr highlights a specific moment
in Gore’s film and dismantles the shockingly false
claims.

What is the Impact of Raising Taxes on the Wealthy?
George Gilder author of Knowledge & Power.

In this short clip bestselling author and influential
thinker George Gilder discusses the effects of raising taxes on the
wealthy. Although this is commonly pointed to as a solution for
America's economic problems, you may be surprised by what this
policy decision results in. In his new book Knowledge and Power:
The Information Theory of Capitalism and How It Is Revolutionizing
Our World, Gilder synthesizes his analysis of technology and
economics to build a new theory of capitalism.Published on Apr 15, 2014

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